


The Most Beautiful Forbidden Fruit

by botanistlester (Skeletonflowers)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bigotry & Prejudice, Discrimination, Forbidden Love, M/M, Magic, Phan - Freeform, Phan Angst, Phan Fluff, Witchcraft, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-07-19 15:29:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7367257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skeletonflowers/pseuds/botanistlester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Never fall in love with a human, for it is the worst fate to fall upon a witch."</p><p>  In a world where witches and humans live side-by-side, a war breaks out after the two species procreate, producing bloodthirsty children. As a result, the government puts laws into place: Witches and humans must never fall in love or bear children. It's a rule that Dan Howell and his family have lived hand-in-hand with, even going so far as to make sure that Dan never has prolonged contact with the other species. When Dan goes to his favourite magic shop one day, he meets the new employee, Phil Lester. A human who he can't seem to get rid of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my new chaptered fic! Updates will be on Sundays (: I hope you all like it as there's a forbidden love feel and magic and stuff like that c: I'd like to thank Charlie (aka moondaniel on tumblr) for this wonderful idea! Enjoy!

Ever since the day Dan was born, there's always been one thing that has been shoved down his throat.

Never fall in love with a human, for it is the worst fate to fall upon a witch.

It wouldn't have been so bad really, except for the fact that humans were literally everywhere he looked. He always worried about it. What if he ended up falling for a human? What if he had a child with the human? He would be the ultimate shame cast on his family, along with his entire generation of witches.

Falling in love with a human was completely out of the question. And not even just that, it was against the law. A human must never fall in love with a witch and a witch must never fall in love with a human. It was always the witches who took the act more seriously, stripping a witch of their powers and casting them out of the race completely, but the humans technically looked down on it as well. Just not as much, Dan supposes.

A long time ago, witches and humans were able to mingle and procreate in peace. There was nothing wrong with it at the time and everybody had high views about love, for if you fall in love, it was clearly meant to be. However, that all changed very quickly when the children of the hybrids grew older.

They were horrifying creatures, ones with glowing eyes that immobilized anyone who stared into them and pointed noses just like a crow's beak. By the time they reached puberty, they were too strong and were able to kill with just the flick of a hand. One day, there was a mass murder of witches and humans alike, and the hybrids had to be exterminated by the most powerful witches in the nation.

Ever since, it has been illegal to fall in love with a member of the opposite species and even worse so, having a child with a human could result in a witch's incineration. He'd seen it happen once or twice and it was disgusting the way everyone was chanting around him while the damned witch was screaming in agony.

Thankfully, times had been changing for a while now. Even though falling in love with a human could result in the loss of a witch's powers, oftentimes the witch would welcome their fate with open arms. Apparently it was worth it as long as they could be with their true love, side-by-side without any glowering and no fear about having children anymore. They were then human and free to do as they wished.

While Dan could understand, he still tried to distance himself from the humans. It wasn't that hard either, especially when his parents were so disgusted by humans that they forbid Dan from going to the same high school or university as one. In their opinion, there was nothing worse than a human and the world would be better off without them.

Dan was thankful that he didn't share the same views as them. His own uni had opened his eyes, made him realize that there was nothing wrong with loving someone so much that you willingly would give your powers up for them. It made him realize that humans were just like them, just without the magic and were slightly less intelligent.

If only his parents would understand that, then his life would be so much easier in the long run. Then maybe he could have a few human friends to spice things up a little without being afraid to take them home with him.

"I'm going out," Dan called to his empty flat. Well, it wasn't empty per-say. He had a cat, Chamomile, who he'd done a spell on a while ago to be able to talk to her.

"Be careful going out," Chamomile purred, rubbing herself against his legs. "You getting supplies for a new project?"

Dan nodded and leaned over to pet her, smiling as she bumped her nose into his palm. Her fur was completely black but tinged red in the sun and she had brilliant green eyes that put grass to shame. "I'm doing a misery spell," he answered. "This guy at my work decided it'd be funny to go around telling everybody I was sleeping with him. So obviously, I have to break down his mental state."

"Sounds just like you."

Snorting, Dan rolled his eyes and stepped out of his flat, the keys jingling in his hands. "I'll be back soon. Be good." The door locked easily behind him and he stuffed his wand (a completely black one made out of marble and swirls of dragon's blood with a disgustingly pink crystal at the tip) into his back pocket.

There was a magic shop right down the street from him that had the best supplies in town. Literally every time he needed something strange or peculiar, he could find it easily. For this spell, he just needed two black candles, chalk, sage, and black tourmaline. It didn't seem too difficult to achieve, and he may as well grab a few other supplies while he's there. Just in case.

It was a pretty little shop, with plants and crystals and trinkets all over the walls. The name, 'The Witch's Cauldron', hung on the storefront with an eerie blue light and plastic 'smoke' that made Dan feel right at home. Not to mention the friendly witch who owned it, his very own best friend.

"Dan!" Said owner, Louise, greeted once he found his way inside. She immediately enveloped him in a hug, barrelling herself into his chest. She smelled of fresh cinnamon and oranges, with just a hint of sage. When she pulled away, her blue eyes were shining and Dan noticed that the tips of her hair looked a bit more pink than it did just over a week ago. "Come for some new supplies already? What'll it be today? A love spell? Maybe a talking plant spell?"

Dan snickered and pushed his fringe out of his face before stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Not exactly," he told her. He then explained that he was there for a misery spell, watching as her eyes widened and her mouth fell open. Dan typically wasn't much for dark magic and everybody knew it. So just to soften the blow a bit, he added, "Maybe I could get some supplies for a sexual fantasy dream as well."

At that, Louise laughed loudly and smacked his elbow, snorting a bit. This caused a few stares from the other customers, but she just went a light shade of pink before daring to speak. "I believe the sexual fantasy spell calls for some Faerie dust, a pig's tail, and some lemon zest. Oh! And human sperm!" She wiggled her eyebrows at him before bursting into another fit of giggles.

Dan shook his head in amusement, patting her head affectionately. "I don't recall human sperm being on the list of things I need to have a sex dream, Louise."

"Change of recipe?"

"I'd have heard about it by now."

She groaned, pouting. "Damn, I was going to direct you to my new human employee for that ingredient too! You always have to ruin my fun."

Dan stopped from where he was sorting through the small bottles of lemon zest, his ears perking. He almost dropped the bottle on the ground but Louise was thankfully quick enough to draw her pastel lavender wand and suspend the item in air. "You hired a human?" He whispered. His eyes flickered over the many faces of the shop, wondering which one it was. None of them really stuck out to him so he just gaped back at Louise with his eyebrows hiked high into his hairline.

"He was just so charming! I couldn't resist!" She glared at Dan accusingly. "What, are you against humans now?"

"No," he sighed in exasperation. Sometimes he found his parents tendencies slipping into his own speech and resented himself for it. He grabbed a bottle of lemon zest to stuff in his basket before moving on to the shelf of minerals to search for black tourmaline. "I was just surprised you hired him, is all. Have you forgotten what kind of shop this is?"

Louise shrugged and put a small bag of pig tails into his basket. She seemed to be trailing after him, helping pick out his supplies. "He's surprisingly knowledgeable about magic. Apparently he went to university for Witch History Studies."

Dan almost dropped the jar of Faerie dust on the floor. He really needed to stop being so surprised. "They have that?"

"Yes, Dan," Louise groaned. "Not everybody went to rich private schools solely for witches, you know. Even humans can study our kind, it's not the eighteenth century anymore."

Dan could feel his face burning with embarrassment. So what if he didn't know much about humans? His parents didn't exactly let him interact with them, now did they? "You've met my parents," he opted for instead.

Sage and chalk were thrown into the basket along with a few black candles and his visit was coming to a close. Louise was unusually quiet for a moment before perking up to her normal self again. "Well times are changing, you know. The human government has been rather slack on their species, so I assume we will be close behind. Especially with how progressive our generation is."

Ah yes, the governments. After the huge Hybrid War, the witches and humans decided it'd be a splendid idea to separate the government into two sides. This way, the humans can dictate laws and the witches can dictate their own. Pile that into separated schooling (which had still been a thing up until eight years ago when the Stanley v. Witch Academy bill passed, allowing schools to intermingle. Even so, Dan's parents downright refused to let him attend an intermingled school, and he stayed with his own species in horrified embarrassment of how conservative his parents were.

Needless to say, he was glad to get the hell out of their house.

"Where is this human, then? Surely he would have knocked down your entire store by now if he's as clumsy as the myths say they are."

Louise glared at him and opened her mouth to snark at him, but she was cut off by a loud shattering noise and a squeal.

Following the sound, they turned to stare at the man who seemed to had dropped an entire jar of frog tongues on the ground. "I'm so sorry!" He squeaked, frantically looking around for a broom to clean up the mess with. He came up short handed though, despite being in a literal witch shop. Dan reminded himself to talk to Louise about ironically getting some brooms as he pulled out his wand.

With a few mumbled words under his breath, the frog tongues were safely escorted off the ground and into a new jar, far away from a hazardous area.

"So he might be a little clumsy," Louise chided under her breath while the man glanced up to smile at Dan in relief.

"Thank you!" He said enthusiastically. Dan took his time to survey him, first noticing his nametag that read 'Phil' in block letters before travelling up to glance over his straight black fringe and eyes as bright as the sky. His skin was white as snow and his lips were the soft colour of fresh peonies, contrasting to the sharpness of his adam's apple. He was quite attractive and Dan blinked at the realization.

A human? Attractive? He must have inhaled too much of that Faerie dust.

He could see the embarrassment on Phil's face from dropping the items, watched as Phil's eyes took in his tanned skin and brown hair and eyes. It was easy to tell a witch apart from a human, mainly from the eyes. Each witch had a golden shimmer to their eyes, like little flecks of gold had gotten trapped around their irises. It was a bit strange for Dan to just see blue with no hint of gold in sight.

"You're welcome," Dan mused. "Be careful next time, okay?"

Phil nodded and saluted him, his tongue sticking out of the teeth of his grin. "Aye-aye, Captain."

As Dan checked out his items, he couldn't help but feel dirty for speaking to a human. While he had nothing against them, it was the first time he'd ever really made conversation with one, and he could already feel the disappointment seeping from his parents' expressions.

Even the thought of disappointing his parents made a nasty taste rise in Dan's throat. He definitely needed a distraction.

A distraction in the form of a misery spell.


	2. Chapter 2

Dan opened the door to his flat with an elongated groan, not caring who heard him. The paper bag in his arms rustled as he set it on the table and a warmth on his calf notified him of the presence of Chamomile, who always liked to rub against his legs.

"What crawled up your ass and died?" Chamomile teased. Her voice was a bit lower and rumbled as she purred deep in her throat. She jumped on the table as he began unpacking his new supplies, looking at the items in curiosity.

"Louise hired a human at the shop," Dan muttered. He began to gather up the supplies needed for the misery spell, pursing his lips as he did so. He was still a bit frazzled by the encounter and he didn't exactly know why the thought of conversing with the human bothered him so much, but it just did.

"So what? It's not illegal to talk to one, you know." Chamomile followed him to the office (Dan called it the Witch Den just because he could) where he performed most of his spells. She had stopped purring by this point and Dan was trying to ignore her glare as he got out a piece of chalk.

With lazy strokes, he began to draw a pentagram in the middle of the floor, the disgusting sound of chalk against cement making Dan's ears ring. "I know but I feel so uncomfortable about it. He's not even a witch and he's working at a magic store. Isn't that weird?" He finished the pentagram and placed the two black candles on either side of it, using the tip of his wand to light them. "Please tell me that's weird."

"That's not weird, Dan. Many witches get human jobs and you don't see anybody complaining about it."

Dan sighed, running a hand through his hair. "You're a cat, you don't understand"

"One more word and I will claw your eyes out," Chamomile growled. "I understand you're a bit unnerved after hearing terrible things about humans for the past twenty-four years of your life, but they aren't going to kill you. For god's sake!"

Placing the black tourmaline in the center of his beautiful drawing, Dan huffed out his exasperation. He was trying to perform a spell, didn't Chamomile understand that? This was only distracting him. "He might not, but my parents definitely could."

The cat seemed to calm down a little then, her bristled fur smoothing out into it's regular black fluff. "So this is about your parents, then."

"This is not about my parents."

"You feel guilty for talking to a human because they would look down on you for it."

"Do not."

"Dan." Dan froze at the tone of Chamomile's voice, right with his wand poised over the dried sage where he was about to set it on fire. He looked down at her sheepishly, shrinking under her serious green gaze. "You shouldn't feel guilty for making friends with a human. Your parents are old and old people are usually wrong because they can't seem to get their asses in the correct era." She wrinkled her nose as Dan lit the sage, the musky smell filling the room. "I'm gonna go before I vomit, but you need to do what makes you happy. Fuck everyone else."

And then she was gone, leaving Dan with burning sage and a shittily drawn pentagram on the floor. Dan furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head. He couldn't think about that right now. He had a spell to perform.

He waved the sage in the air, making sure to purify every corner of the room with it. When the office was filled completely with smoke, Dan put the sage on the underside of the pentagram and watched through half lidded eyes as swirls of smoke danced through the air. It was beautiful, almost like performing a ballet.

He started to recite the words mechanically, watching wax drip from the candles and onto the floor. That would suck having to clean up later. The drips of candle wax was so black that it almost looked exactly like Dan's soul.

He snickered at the thought, widening his eyes when he did so and stopping mid-chant. He did not mean to laugh out loud.

"Well shit," he stated just as the entire pentagram burst into flames.

He backed away from it, retrieving his wand from his back pocket. Sadly, he couldn't really do much with just his wand, only simple spells, but surely he could stop a misery demon from being summoned. Well, that was what his work was, anyways.

(It doesn't even occur to Dan that perhaps that wasn't what he had to do at work. He was a magical summoner who summoned Faeries and Pixies for god's sake, not a demon conjurer.)

Dan pointed his wand at the flames, ignoring the heat that was blistering his skin. He could always heal that later. The pink crystal on his wand began to glow bright. "Abandon," he said flatly, just as he started to see a figure begin to form within the fire. "Stop entry and perform exorcism."

A pink beam of light emitted from Dan's wand and he sighed in relief as the fire began to diminish. It was only then that he realized the fire alarm was going off and his arms were burning so bad that he had trouble moving them.

As he exited the Witch Den, he grabbed some burn heal cream and quickly applied it to his wounds before grabbing a tsking Chamomile and making his way out of his apartment and into the crowded streets where his fellow neighbors looked more than a bit annoyed at being disturbed.

"You idiot!" Chamomile hissed. She was perched carefully on his shoulder, claws digging into his skin through his black jumper. "What the hell were you doing in there?"

"I amused myself and laughed in the middle of my spell," Dan groaned, wiping the sweat from his brow. Fires sure do make you sweaty.

"You what?!"

"Don't make me repeat myself," Dan muttered darkly. It silenced Chamomile, but he could still tell that she was a bit unnerved. With a loud sigh, he dislodged her from his shoulder and cuddled her to his chest. When she was acting tough, Dan knew that all she really wanted was to be snuggled. "I'm sorry I scared you, it won't happen again."

She mumbled something he didn't catch into his chest, but the purring came back and Dan knew he was off the hook. As a reward, he scratched behind her ears and gave her a little forehead kiss.

"Dan?"

Dan turned at the voice, eyes visibly widening when he saw none other than Phil approaching him. The man looked confused, his blue eyes flickering around the area where people had gathered, awaiting for the fire brigade to show. He now allowed himself to notice that Phil was still in his work uniform, a light blue shirt with "The Witch's Cauldron" scrawled in small letters on the front with a smoking cauldron on the back and black jeans. He must have just gotten out of work. "Phil? What are you doing here?" He felt Chamomile make a small surprised noise in the back of her throat and he knew that she understood what was going on.

"I could ask you the same thing," Phil laughed. He scratched the back of his head and sat beside Dan on the bench. It took all that Dan had in him not to move away so they were farther apart, but he told himself that would be rude. "I live here. What happened? Why is everyone outside."

Dan's blood ran cold. They lived in the same building. Oh god, now he'll never get away from him. He didn't speak his thoughts though and instead uttered, "I accidentally messed up a spell and conjured a misery demon. It's all good, I performed an exorcism before it could do anything, but I did start a pretty big fire in my office."

Phil laughed, his hand coming up to cover his mouth. "What made you mess up so badly?"

"I laughed at myself in the middle of a spell, nothing big." Phil snorted and it seemed as if he was trying his best not to burst into loud bouts of laughter. Dan decided to change the subject, scowling. He'd rather not have a cat (a strangely quiet cat) and a human making fun of his mistakes. "So I heard you went to university for Witch History Studies?"

Phil perked up a bit, his eyes flickering down to Chamomile as he reached out to pet her. In turn, she started to purr and nuzzled her face into his hand. That traitor. "Yeah! I've always been interested in witch history since I was little and decided to pursue it as a major." He cut himself off, chuckling and shaking his head. "Obviously, you can't do much with the degree so I was very grateful when Louise offered me a job."

"What did you find so interesting about us? We're just like humans, just with a little bit of magic." Dan found the questions flowing out of him easily and he wondered how he was doing so without freaking out.

Phil shrugged, smiling at Chamomile, who decided it'd be a swell idea to get off of Dan's lap and into Phil's. Dan glared at her. Bitch. "I just like learning about how witches used to hide their identities back in the day and humans had no clue! Until the Salem Witch Trials, of course, but even then, it was mostly just dumb humans who were burning at the stake. The real witches were smart enough to hide everything about themselves and pretend to be as human as possible. Then I enjoy learning about the Hybrid War and the love laws and the different types of spells. Everything is so interesting!"

Dan gaped at him. He didn't really know what to say to that. Things that weren't at all interesting to Dan was completely amazing to Phil. He almost couldn't believe it. Chamomile was the one to speak up, causing Phil to jump as she did so. "I like him, Dan. You did a good job picking out a friend for once."

Friend? Were him and Phil friends?

Phil chuckled, smiling widely and scratching Chamomile behind her ears in the way that she liked the most. "If I had known you could talk, I would have made conversation sooner." Phil then looked up at Phil, his blue eyes shining. People started pouring back into the apartments as apparently the fire brigade had shown up when Dan wasn't paying attention, finding nothing wrong except for a slight burn mark in the shape of a pentagram in Dan's office. "Performing a spell to make your cat talk is pretty impressive, Dan. Most witches can't do that one unless they're really powerful." He stood up, Dan still gaping at him, and handed Chamomile back to him. "I'll see you around, yeah? It was nice getting to know you!"

As he began to walk away, Chamomile shouted goodbye at him and Dan could only utter a shocked, "See you around," because he actually made conversation with a human and he couldn't really understand what was so bad about that anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Let me know what you guys think! Also my tumblr is phansdick if you guys wanted to follow me on there ^_^


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan goes to his parents' house and has a lovely talk with his sister, who knocks some sense into him.

Dan always dreaded Wednesdays.

He would get off of work, hands scrubbed dry (with occasional burn marks), and body worn down from using so much magic in one day. It was hard to be a magic conjurer, and usually he would just go home and lay in bed while complaining to Chamomile about how hard his life is and she would listen because he’s talking to a fucking cat.

But on Wednesdays? He couldn’t do any of that. Instead, he had to get his lazy ass moving and change into fancy clothes, clothes suited enough for his fashionably rich parents. Then he would drag himself over to their house, listen to them complain about the current political state of the world over dinner, and cast tortured glances to his sister, Rosemary, when they looked away.

Wednesdays were rough.

He didn’t bother with the doorbell as he made his way to the front steps, deciding instead to just walk right in. Not like it really mattered, anyways, because he did technically live there at one point. The maid greeted him when he walked in, a small lady with crinkles by her eyes and a fluff of gray hair on her head. “Welcome home, Daniel,” she murmured, bowing her head as he passed.

Dan smiled at her, patting her shoulder affectionately. The only person beside his sister who he could actually stand in this household was Gertrude. “Nice to see you again, Gertrude,” he replied. She led him to the dining room (which he knew where it was, but he didn’t mention it), where his mother and father were already sitting down. They were sipping on fancy red wine in complete silence when he came in, causing them to look up.

“Daniel,” his mother said immediately, nodding her head. She didn’t smile, didn’t stand up to hug him. His father was the same, except he didn’t actually say anything to Dan upon his entrance. Dan just wanted to go back to his own cozy apartment.

“Mum,” he greeted, looking first at her and then his father. “Dad. Good to see you.”

His mother hummed, taking a sip of her wine. “Your sister should be here shortly. Please, take a seat.”

Dan grimaced at her tone. She always seemed so uninterested in everything he’s had to say about his life. He could hardly blame himself for moving out as soon as he turned eighteen. At least he had a housemate now that cared about him, whether she was a cat or not.

The table was completely quiet until loud chatter interrupted the uncomfortable atmosphere. Dan recognized his sister’s voice and immediately relaxed, smiling up at her as she entered the room. As normal, her brown curls were out of whack and her bright green eyes were filled with life, a total contrast to the dull dining room surrounding her whereabouts. “Rosemary,” he sighed appreciatively.

She grinned at him, messing up his hair with a small hand. “Hey, little bro!” She then turned to their parents and greeted them with almost as much enthusiasm. Dan reminded himself to ask her how she did that. “Sorry I’m late, I was training a new employee today and it took a bit longer than expected for him to get the hang of things.”

For some reason, the sentence made Dan think of Phil, a rush of guilt flowing through him as he thought about how disappointed his parents would be with him if they knew. His palms started to sweat and he promised himself not to say anything about it. Especially not when his parents were rather conservative and his mum was on the actual Witch Council board. She would probably cut off his ass and hand it to him right then and there if she knew.

Throughout Dan’s internal debate, his sister never stopped her friendly chatter. She went on to tell a few funny stories from her working experience - she made different types of potions to sell in stores all around the country - and how the new man, Quinn, had apparently knocked over an entire row of love potions into a cage of rats. “Needless to say, I never have to wonder how rats have sex again,” Rosemary snickered. His parents stayed stone-faced, but it didn’t stop Dan from letting out a loud chuckle.

His sister really was his favourite person.

A small bowl of soup was placed in front of Dan, who waited for his father to give the okay before digging in and sighing happily. Even if he hated being around his parents, he could at least appreciate Gertrude’s delicious food when it was presented to him. Especially when it was his favourite, something Gertrude liked to call ‘Wedding Soup’. Honestly it was just spinach, carrots, noodles, and meat all thrown into some broth, but Dan couldn’t care less and almost groaned as soon as he tasted it. If there was one thing he missed about living here, it was Gertrude’s wonderful cooking.

“So Dan,” his father started. Dan and Rosemary immediately tensed, pausing in the middle of their soup. “Tell us about work. How is it coming along?”

Dan resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It was the same conversation every single week. His father would ask Dan about his work, which usually resulted in his mother ranting about how her work was going (despite the fact that literally nobody cared), and then his parents would get in this huge debate over why witches were the superior race while Dan and his sister awkwardly stuffed food into their mouths. He was rather sick of it, to be completely honest. But he just shrugged, talking himself down a bit no matter how much he just wanted to lash out at the moment. “It’s going pretty good. I had to summon an elf the other day so it could help us learn how to build houses out of trees. It was fairly interesting but a rather dull job when considering some of my others.”

Dan’s mum nodded, her red painted lips puckering as she sucked up a spoonful of soup. “A splendid job as always. You really do make a good witch, Dan. We’ve raised you well.”

He tried not to wince at the words and it was easier when another plateful of food was sat in front of him. Gertrude seemed to go full-on italian by serving manicotti and garlic bread, which he happily munched on, trying not to think about how he would be even better if he hadn’t made friends with a human. If only they knew. He sure as hell wasn’t going to tell them. “Thank you,” he said instead.

It was then that his mum started ranting about some case where a witch had fallen in love with a human man. She threw out harsh words and insults left and right, not understanding how the woman could be so happy when she lost her powers to such a ‘lowly’ species. Dan felt nauseous listening and was glad when he finished his dinner.

He didn’t even welcome dessert before he was pushing his chair back and excusing himself to the garden, where he relaxed in the hammock and watched as the sun fell behind the trees. Now would be the time where he wished he had a good book to read as the sun set, but he’d just have to deal with watching nature for once.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to watch the sunset by himself for long because soft footsteps alerted him of his sister’s presence, who beamed brightly at him. “May I join you?” She asked. Her lips were curled up and her eyes shone a bright emerald in the sun.

Dan chuckled and moved over a bit on the hammock so she could squeeze in next to him. He was glad that he had a sister who was so close to him, where it was completely normal to just lay huddled up on a hammock together. With anyone else, it would be rather weird, but this was just comfortable and his sister’s curly hair tickled his nose as she attempted (and failed) to tuck it behind her head.

“So I learned a new spell,” Rosemary said nonchalantly after a moment of silence. Dan glanced over at her to find her taking out her wand (a birchwood one with emerald etched into the wood and an emerald tip). She reached over to tear a leaf off of a bush, putting her wand against it and muttering a few words under her breath. In a millisecond, a rose grew from the leaf and Dan felt his eyes widen.

“Wow,” he breathed, reaching out to run his fingers over the newly bloomed flower. “That’s amazing, Rose.”

She beamed and handed it over to him, careful not to prick his fingers on the blood red thorns. “Thank you, I learned it at work when we were all fucking around with different spellbooks.” She settled back in the hammock, leaning her cheek against Dan’s shoulder with her eyes aimed at the darkened sky. “So, tell me. What has you all guilty?”

Dan flinched. Was he really that obvious? Although he supposed that it was pretty unusual for him to leave without even eating dessert. He hesitated before relaxing. This was Rosemary, his sister who was very obviously liberal despite what everyone else seemed to think of her views. She was always trying to stand up for humans, so why would she care that Dan had talked to one? It’s not like he kissed Phil or anything. He simply just had a conversation with him. “I met a human the other day,” he said slowly, trying to make sure that his parents wouldn’t be able to hear. “We had a really nice conversation and I feel guilty about it because I rather enjoyed his presence.”

“That’s it?”

Dan glared at her. “What do you mean ‘that’s it’?”

Rosemary rolled her eyes and lightly smacked her hand on Dan’s stomach. “He’s a fucking human, not some disgusting creature made out of garbage.” Dan opened his mouth to explain his emotions, but she was already going on, speaking rapidly before he could get anything else in. “I get it, I really do. You’re scared that mum and dad are going to disown you or something, but they won’t. Sure, they’ll be disappointed, but it’s not like you’re going to get pregnant with his babies or something. What’s the worst that can happen? You fall in love? Maybe lose your magic? I’m sure that if you fall in love with the guy then losing your magic won’t be very upsetting to you if you get to be with him.”

“I’m not gonna fall in love with him,” Dan muttered, but it was lost to the night sky and Rosemary’s endless tittering.

“Besides, times are changing now. Friendships between humans and witches are becoming less and less voodoo and I’m nearly certain the love laws are going to be destroyed relatively soon.” She turned to face Dan, despite being smushed together on the hammock. Her eyebrows were furrowed and she looked vaguely annoyed. “Make some friends, Dan. It’s not gonna kill you.”

Dan felt himself deflating. He really couldn’t understand what he was so worried about. Sure, his parents hated humans with a passion, but he didn’t. Why did he have to conform to their own ideals? They aren’t the same person, he didn’t have to be weary of humans if they were. He shuddered. But was he really strong enough to go against his parents wishes? That, he didn’t know. “I wish I was as strong as you are,” Dan murmured quietly. The words cut through the air like a knife.

Rosemary went silent. She seemed to be contemplating something and Dan’s suspicions were confirmed when she opened her mouth. “There’s a protest next week,” she said. Dan raised his eyebrows. “I want you to come and I want you to bring this human with you.”

“A protest? For what?”

 

Rosemary rolled her eyes at his daftness. “The love laws, what else? It’s held every year and is kind of like a huge parade and convention. You’ve seriously never heard of the Unity Protest?” Dan shook his head. “Well I’m forcing you to come with me and I’m forcing you to bring your human friend. Feel free to bring Louise as well, I miss her more than I miss you.”

She snickered as Dan cuffed her on the head. “I’ll think about it,” Dan said after a moment of silence. He didn’t think he really had it in him to go to this thing, but maybe if Rosemary and Louise were there, he could brave it out.

God, he really was weak.

Rosemary shuffled beside him and hopped off of the hammock, nearly tipping Dan off as well. “I’m going to head back inside since dessert should be served soon. You should come back in as well.” Her voice went quiet and her eyes were soft. “I know it doesn’t seem like it sometimes, but mum and dad miss you a lot. The least we can do is try to enjoy our Wednesdays with them.” With that, she turned and walked back inside, leaving Dan with jumbled thoughts and a tired mind.

After a few minutes, Dan sighed and followed. He couldn’t miss out on Gertrude’s wonderful dessert after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and lemme know what you think! See you next sunday!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan, Phil, Rosemary, and Louise go to the love laws protest!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little tw for mentions of burning at the stake and also an anxiety attack on dan's part!

Dan didn’t know how he even convinced Phil to come to a protest when he barely knew the guy. He tried not to think about it too much because then his head just hurt and he wondered if Phil was already planning on going afterall. He didn’t like his thoughts to be filled with Phil and he tried to dispel them by shaking his head erratically.

Alas, the dreaded day had come and Dan’s hands were drenched with sweat and his hair was curling at the ends because it was so humid outside.

When Rosemary showed at his door, telling him to get in her car ‘or else’, he almost started laughing but the day’s events stopped him from doing so. Her outfit was rather peculiar. Her brown hair seemed more wild than usual and she had painted her entire face green, looking like a witch in those old movies when people were still speculating whether or not they existed. She’d even gone so far as to paint a black mole on her nose and wear long black robes with a pointed witch’s hat.

It put Dan’s all black and boring attire to shame. He hadn’t even thought about dressing up.

When Louise and Phil got in the vehicle, he only felt more out of place. Louise looked like a much richer version of his sister with elegant red robes while Phil had even painted hearts on his cheeks and was wearing all white with a pair of white wings. In his hand, he held a bow and arrow with a heart on the end, looking like a proper cupid.

Christ, Dan was not going to have fun at all.

“Where’s your costume?” Louise prodded, poking his cheek where she knew Dan’s dimple was.

He cringed. “I wasn’t informed it was a costume party,” he muttered, glaring at his sister for emphasis. He then introduced his sister to Phil and she gave Dan a smug smile once he was finished. While he normally loved his sister dearly, today was not one of those days.

It was as if she was implying there was something going on between Phil and Dan, which was obviously not the case. They were just friends, if even that, barely acquaintances. She needed to keep her mind to herself or Dan was going to have to put a misery spell on her.

His sister was chatting away politely, gossiping to Louise with excited blubbering about some guy she thinks is cute from her work and Dan and Phil were just listening in silence, nodding along as needed. They eventually pulled into a parking space and Dan could hear the screaming and loud music from where they were.

“Please, lord, tell me we aren’t going to walk,” Dan groaned out, ignoring the way his sister snickered at him.

“Thankfully for you, we are witches, aren’t we, Dan?” Louise chirped, and he glanced back at her to see her sending an apologetic look to Phil. “Let’s just do a transportation spell so we don’t have to walk.”

Dan stuck his tongue out at her. “Well how is Phil going to get there then?” He noticed the way Phil grinned at him and it forced him to smile a bit back at him.

“Easy! He’ll just hold onto you when you do your spell!”

“Wait a-,” but before Dan could even finish his sentence, both his sister and best friend had gotten out their wands, muttered a few words, and dissolved into midair. Leaving him with a very amused Phil. Dan sighed audibly but tried his best to seem at least a bit welcoming and held his arm out to Phil. The action was a bit strange considering Dan was in the front seat and Phil was sitting right behind him, but he didn’t mind bending his arm in a weird position too much. “Let’s go show them up, Cupid,” Dan teased.

Phil laughed, covering his mouth with a pale hand. “Lead the way, Dracula?” Dan furrowed his eyebrows. Dracula? He was a witch, not a vampire for fuck’s sake, but his bemused thoughts were cut off as soon as Phil clasped his wrist. His hand was warm and he certainly felt alive.

Well, of course he was alive, but Dan had never touched a human before and he was slightly taken aback by how welcoming his touch was. He tried to ignore those thoughts though, drawing his wand and twirling it towards where they were touching, muttering the familiar spell. He shouldn’t be proud of how easy this spell was for him, but he was quite lazy and moments later they were standing in the middle of a large crowd.

Phil let go of Dan’s wrist when Rosemary clasped her hands onto Dan’s shoulders. “You made it!” She squealed. “Just in time for the parade!”

“We were literally two seconds behind you!” Dan whined, but she ignored him and steered the two boys over to the edge of the crowd. Music began playing and Dan raised his eyebrows as instruments started to literally walk by themselves across the clearing, seemingly being played by nothing.

He had to admit that it was rather cool.

There was a presence beside Dan as different floats came by, decorated with black cats and stereotypical witches and finally a commemoration for every single witch and human who had been exterminated for falling in love. Dan winced at that one and had trouble maintaining eye contact. He didn’t know so many people had been mercilessly killed by something so seemingly mundane as love.

“I’m glad that the law isn’t as harsh nowadays,” Phil murmured next to Dan and Dan looked over to see a sad smile on his face. His eyes were the colour of the sky and reflected the fireworks that were being set off. “They used to kill people just for falling in love. How insane is that? I’m glad they’re more lax now, even if the law is still in action.”

Lax? Phil thinks the love laws are lax? Does he even realize that hundreds of witches lose their powers every year for accidentally falling in love with a human? That humans literally are just let off with a warning because it’s not so illegal when witches are forced to become non-magical beings? Hell, that witches are burned at the stake if they get pregnant with a human’s child?

Maybe they were a bit less intense than they were a few decades ago, and maybe it’s not such a big deal for humans who have little to nothing to worry about, but to witches? There’s a whole lot of other things than just their powers at stake. Literally.

Dan was surprised by his own thoughts and he blinked slowly, looking up at the sky as they release more and more fireworks. He’d never really thought that much about the love laws before, never had to worry about them, really. His parents always got it into his head that he didn’t have anything to worry about if he’d just stay away from humans, but here he was thinking about how unfair they really were. His head hurt and as he looked around at the witches and humans laughing and interacting with each other without discrimination, his palms began to sweat. 

“I’m gonna be sick,” he said.

Immediately, all three of his companions were by his side, leading him away from the throng of people and to a bench that was mildly secluded behind a very pretty willow tree decorated in red lights.

Rosemary sat beside him, rubbing a hand to his back. He vaguely notices Louise take Phil to the side, talking animatedly to him. He hears a few words as she talks, “Parents… government… never talked… humans.” Just from that, he realizes that Louise is telling the story of why Dan is so weary of humans, but he couldn’t bring himself to care as Phil nods in understanding.

“What’s wrong, Dan?” Rosemary asks quietly. At this question, Louise and Phil became quiet, no doubt listening in.

Dan puts his head between the knees that he had brought up to his chest. “Why is love such a crime?” Dan groaned. “Like I get it, people are scared that Hybrids will come to exist again, but you can’t really help falling in love, right? Even if the laws are more lax today, they still aren’t really fair. I’ve grown up seeing witches being burned at the stake for having a baby with a human and I’ve grown up watching witches lose their powers over falling in love. Why is this considered normal now and why am I suddenly being bothered by it now?”

Rosemary rested her head on his shoulder. “Dan, don’t think too hard about this. Every year, the laws are getting more and more lax. Where humans used to get killed for so much as falling in love, the human government doesn’t even do so anymore! And yeah, maybe our government doesn’t let us off so easily, but we’re getting there. I have a feeling that very soon, the love laws aren’t going to exist anymore and people will be able to love freely.” Her hair tickled Dan’s nose as he lifted his head and rested his face into her hair. “It’s a good thing that you’re becoming aware. It means our parents aren’t controlling you any longer and you can finally see what’s wrong in the world.”

“The world sucks,” Dan grumbled, but he was starting to feel slightly less bad about himself and his thoughts were getting clearer every moment. He lifted his head to glance sheepishly at his two friends. “Sorry for this,” he murmured.

“Don’t be sorry, Dan,” Phil said, giving him a grin that made his entire face light up. “We’re all here for you and we understand.”

“What Phil said,” Lousie chirped. She beamed as the group all laughed at her joke. “Now shall we get on with the protest? Usually there’s some really good food around this time.”

Dan smiled and nodded, standing up and following them back into the crowd of people.

Louise was right, there was some good food. People were glowing glitter on Dan as he walked past and he found himself giggling and having a good time despite his earlier anxiety about the whole thing. There was a table labeled ‘Witch’s Brew’ where a couple of girls stood over a steaming cauldron wearing similar clothing to Dan’s sister.

“Would you like to try our famous Witch’s Brew?” They asked in spooky voices and pulled out a large ladle to pour the mixture into black plastic cups.

Dan thanked them and took a sip, moaning appreciatively. “What is this glorious drink?” He asked, feeling the drink bubble on his tastebuds.

“Well that would ruin the surprise, wouldn’t it?” The girls cackled.

Phil leaned forward to whisper in Dan’s ear, his breath hot over Dan’s neck and making the hairs there stand up. “It’s just bourbon mixed with cream soda, coffee ice cream, and caramel sauce.” He leaned back and the corner of his mouth twinged up. “For future reference in case you want to make it at home.”

Dan grinned at him, nudging him. “Thanks, Phil.” Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

The last stop they made was a stand where two people were selling chocolate chip cookies. It was a witch with curly brown hair and bright green eyes and a human with chocolate hair and hazel eyes, matching smiles on their faces. “Buy a cookie for a quid and help us raise money to have our love finally legalized!”

Dan nearly shat his pants, his eyes bugging out, but nobody else seemed bothered by it as they handed over their money. Dan followed, holding his own money out and taking the cookie in his hands. It was a simple chocolate chip cookie with a red heart drawn in icing on it. “You guys are in love?” He asked dumbly, which they laughed cheerily.

“Yup!” They chimed. They were wearing heart shaped name tags that read PJ and Chris and Dan was full-blown gaping.

Louise laughed, patting Dan on the shoulder. “You’ll have to excuse him, he’s not very used to this kind of thing.”

PJ and Chris nodded in understanding. “Well it’s not so bad, is it mate?” Chris asked, beaming at him. “We’re just two people who want our voices to be heard.”

Dan supposed he had a point. If these people were so willing and outward with the way they loved, then Dan didn’t know what he was so afraid of to begin with. He wasn’t trying to go out and fall in love with the opposite species, he was just trying to make some friends. How could anybody disagree with this when the cause was so pure? People just wanted to the freedom to fall in love.

His parents could deal with it. He didn’t want to be chained to them anymore and wanted to be free to be his own person.

He turned to grin at PJ and Chris, pulling out another quid. “On second thought, give me another cookie. Best of luck to both of you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I nearly didn't finish this today but alas I DID! I've been taking summer classes and had research papers due every week so i'm sorry if this wasn't the best it could have possibly been but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless! If i ever don't update then assume i'm drowning in stress LOL. Kidding but lemme know what you guys think!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan summons a Faerie named Aquamarine, who wants Dan to show her around his world.

Dan’s eyes were heavy as he walked into work and he groaned, wiping away the crusties from his eyes. He never understood why he needed to be at work at exactly six in the morning when he was just a lowly Conjurer, but he couldn’t exactly question it when it comes to his profession.

He did go to school for this, after all.

His fellow coworkers greeted him as he walked past them until he came to his very own office, one that was quite different from the normal perception of an office. On the ground was a very large pentagram, carved into the white marble flooring with smooth grooves where Dan could easily trace through it with salt or anything that the spell called for. There were shelves lined against the walls with various ingredients for conjuring spells, including different minerals and grotesque animal parts that Dan would rather never have to look at again.

He shrugged it off though. He was a witch, of course he’d have to look at that kind of stuff.

Instead of dwelling on the matter, he grabbed the manilla envelope that was attached to his door, right under where his name read ‘Daniel Howell’ in large black script. With smooth fingers, he opened the folder, drawing out the paper inside to read what was on his schedule today. There was only one thing written there, which nearly made him sigh with relief. Seems as if today would be a pretty fast day and he would be able to go home in a couple of hours or so.

‘Call upon a Faerie to extract Faerie Dust and to help enchant the workplace against dangerous magicfolk.’

Dan could definitely do that.

To get started, he grabbed a jar of salt and began to fill in the pentagram, humming along to the shitty pop music that was playing over the loudspeaker. One of the reasons Dan liked his job so much was because they were so lax. All he had to do was do his assigned jobs and then he could go home whenever he liked and they didn’t really care.

Next, he grabbed some Thyme and filled a tiny shot glass with absinthe. He scattered the thyme around the pentagram and put the absinthe in the middle of the pentagram before picking up a tiny shard of amethyst and dropping it into the alcohol. Dan pulled out his wand and pointed it at the liquid. “Infuse,” he muttered, watching with narrowed eyes as the pink crystal on his wand began to glow and the absinthe began to bubble and turn a lovely shade of violet. The consistency of the drink turned thick and at first glance, it resembled the night sky.

Next came the rose petals and frog blood, scattering the rose petals and dripping the blood into the salt, watching as the pentagram became a dark red colour. Dan shivered. He never did like the look of blood mixed with salt and wondered if he was becoming soft.

Finally came the chant. It was rather easy, one in an ancient witch tongue, and he said it with ease. When the last word came, he pointed his wand at the shot glass filled with the absinthe mixture. As if it was kicked, the liquid toppled over and spilled into the center of the pentagram, soaking the thyme and rose petals with the purple liquid. Steam started to raise into the air and Dan watched with a tight-lipped smile as the smoke began to swirl into a tiny figure.

“Who has summoned me?” The voice was high pitched and rather sassy. When the smoke cleared, Dan saw a small woman (only about the size of his pinky finger) suspended in the air with bright blue gossamer wings fluttering around her. She had beautiful ebony skin that seemed to have a golden shimmer and fluffy brown locks of hair that bounced as her wings moved. Her arms were crossed over her chest where she was wearing a blue dress that matched her wings, and an eyebrow was raised.

Dan mimicked her expression, smirking a bit at her. He would never get used to these meetings and always felt a bit awkward doing the first introductions. “I’m Daniel Howell, a witch. I work as a magic conjurer and we need a bit of help doing an enchantment on the workplace against dangerous magicfolk. We also need a new supply of Faerie dust.”

The Faerie hummed and fluttered over to him, getting right into his face and staring him down. He didn’t flinch, just merely pressed his lips together. Already, this woman seemed to be rather difficult and he wondered if he really would get an easy day after all. “Daniel Howell, hm?” She asked, tapping her tiny finger on her chin. “Related to Belinda Howell, a member of the Witch Court? Interesting.” She straightened herself, brushing down her dress. “I’m Aquamarine, but please call me Aqua. I’m hoping we’ll have a great day together!”

Dan blinked at her, his brain immediately slowing down. What? He thought. “What?” He ended up saying aloud. It was as if his head wasn’t allowing him to form any coherent thoughts.

Aqua laughed and settled on Dan’s shoulder. He imagined that if she were bigger, she would be putting an arm around him as well. “Well you don’t think I’m just going to give you that stuff without getting anything in return, do you? Let’s have a little bit of fun first!”

And that’s how Dan found himself on what was supposed to be an average Tuesday afternoon with a Faerie sitting on his shoulder as he let himself into his apartment. He didn’t know how he let her talk him into it so fast, but he was suddenly agreeing to show Aquamarine what life was like in the perspective of a witch.

“Welcome back, Dan- Woah! Who is this?” Chamomile’s usual welcoming was interrupted by surprise as she took in the sight on Dan’s shoulder.

Aqua stood and stepped off of Dan to float in front of Chamomile, grinning at her happily. “I’m Aquamarine! Dan asked me to help out at his work today and he decided to show me around.” Dan had the urge to correct her and say that he didn’t actually do that, that he didn’t ever want to do that, but he decided it would be a good idea to just keep his mouth shut. Just this once.

Instead, he decided to leave the two girls together and go to make some dinner. That way he could get rid of Aqua for a bit while having some time to himself. “Are you okay with shrimp linguine?” Dan asked, heading to the kitchen as the Faerie nodded an affirmative. He already knew it was alright with Chamomile because she was a cat and she only ate some of the little shrimps from this particular meal when Dan was feeling particularly generous.

Dinner didn’t take nearly as long as he wanted. It was finished in less than an hour and his mouth was set in a frown. He had tried to think of fun things to do with Aqua, but only came up with taking her to Louise’s store after dinner. Maybe they could go for some ice cream in town as well, but he wanted to make absolutely sure that she would have fun tonight. He was scared that if she didn’t have fun, then she wouldn’t want to give him what he’d asked for.

When he brought out three plates, two with the pasta, and one with unseasoned shrimp, he found Chamomile and Aquamarine chattering away as if their lives depended on it. They were talking in hushed whispers and Dan’s eyebrows raised into his fringe as he vaguely made out what they were talking about. 

 

“Are you talking about me?” He asked, setting the plates on the table.

Immediately, the girls went quiet and Chamomile purred as she jumped on the dining chair in front of her shrimp. Aqua was more graceful about it, except she couldn’t really sit on the chair without being able to reach so she just sat on top of the table. “We may have been discussing your sudden change of views about the laws,” Chamomile admitted.

Dan scowled at her as she bit into a piece of shrimp. He wished she would stop purring and take in the fact that they had literally been talking behind his back. Jerks. “What about it?” He asked coolly. He decided that he had enough of watching Aqua and Chamomile eat and began to dig in as well, slurping the pasta loudly.

“About how you met a human and everything changed!” Aquamarine squealed. She was eating with her hands and somehow didn’t seem to be getting dirty despite the fact that there was literally messy sauce on the pasta. Dan decided not to inquire about it. “So romantic, isn’t it? You need to introduce me to this guy! He sounds like a real keeper.”

Dan almost dropped his fork, glaring at the two across from him. He didn’t understand how they had gotten along so well right off the bat and how they could even be suggesting that something romantic was happening between he and Phil. “I’d only seen the guy like three times!” Dan protested. “And besides that, it’s against the laws. There’s no way I’d ever fall in love with a human.” He watched Chamomile open her mouth and glared at her. “And that’s final. If you don’t stop bringing it up, I won’t introduce you.” As if he even wanted to anymore, now that they were forming opinions in their minds about their relationship.

That seemed to shut them up. He made a mental note to bring Chamomile along with them because she hadn’t seen Phil since the night of the misery spell fuck-up and she seemed to be able to get Aqua off of his back. Dan had never been very good with new people, so he was grateful that his cat somehow was better at human interaction than he was. Ironic, considering she wasn’t even human to begin with.

Dinner was therefore filled with small chitchat. Aquamarine told them about where she lived: a beautiful lake where her community lived in little lake flowers and held parties with fireflies at night. The entire description was breathtaking and Dan almost longed to see it firsthand. When she was finished with her stories, Dan told her about his usual day at work and about Louise and Phil and how his sister was the only person in his family whom he didn’t despise.

Time seemed to pass a bit more quickly then, and they were heading into town as soon as their meal was finished. The general rule for witches to bring their cats into the city with them was to make sure the animal had a collar on with the animal’s name along with the owner’s and their address. That way the animal could be returned if they ever got lost. It was against the law not to return a witch’s cat to it’s rightful owner so most respected that rule more than they respected themselves.

Chamomile’s collar was a light pink one decorated with small metal hearts and she enjoyed to perch on Dan’s right shoulder. This, of course, allowed Aquamarine to sit on his other shoulder and Dan could feel eyes following him as he made his trip.

“People are staring at us,” Aqua whispered into his ear and Dan nearly laughed.

“It’s not every day that you see somewhere wearing both a cat and a Faerie on their shoulders,” Dan teased. He was getting a bit used to having Aqua around, so it was getting a bit easier to communicate with her. She wasn’t as bad as he initially thought and he figured she was just curious as to what life was like outside of the Faerie realm.

When The Witch’s Cauldron came into view, Dan could feel Aqua practically vibrating on his shoulder. “Is he in there?” She asked, excitement making her voice raise into a high pitched squeal.

Dan nodded, chuckling. “He and Louise both are,” he mused. Then he opened the door.

The smell of herbs greeted him and he sighed happily. This shop was always able to calm his nerves and seeing his best friend always helped him to relax as well. Louise greeted him as soon as he walked through the door, her face morphing into shock as she took in the small woman sitting on her shoulder. She called Phil into the room before Aquamarine started her introduction, the same one she had given to both Dan and Chamomile. 

“So you followed Dan for most of the day, huh?” Louise asked, twinging an eyebrow. She gave Dan an amused glance and he rolled his eyes at her.

“Yep!” Aqua said.

Phil spoke next. Dan could practically see Aqua melt as he did so and he imagined that there would be little hearts floating around her if she was in an anime. “How did you manage that?” He teased, giving Dan a cheeky wink to make sure he knew he was just kidding. “Dan’s not exactly the most fun person to be around, is he?”

Dan huffed, crossing his arm as his group of ‘friends’ cackled with laughter. “I’m not that bad,” he whined.

Chamomile snickered and she jumped from Dan’s shoulder and onto Phil’s. “Oh yes you are. I have to live with you, remember?”

Cue another bout of laughter and Dan was feeling quite a bit offended. He wasn’t that bad. So maybe he had to work on some things. Social interaction, for one. But didn’t everyone have to work on that type of stuff? He was only human- well, witch. He made mistakes and took some time to adjust.

After the laughter died down, Aquamarine piped in. “Actually, I think this was the most fun I’ve ever had.” She glanced over at Dan and smiled, and he realized for the first time that her eyes were nearly as blue as Phil’s were. “I have to go now as it’s getting late, but I really appreciate what you’ve done for me, Dan.” She looked around and gave everyone respective smiles. “It was amazing to meet all of you.”

Dan’s eyes widened. “You’re leaving already?” He blurted before he could stop himself. He wanted to hit himself in the face. Isn’t that what he wanted? It didn’t take him long to realize that it wasn’t. He’d had fun as well and Aquamarine was actually a pretty cool person, whether she made him want to ram his head into a wall or not.

She giggled, nodding. “My family is probably worried about me.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, making some strange hand movements. It looked similar to sign language, except completely different and more fluid. When she stopped, she gave Dan another bright smile. “The enchantment on your workplace is done and the Faerie dust is newly stocked. As for you,” she brushed a hand through her hair and Dan watched in amazement as she pulled out something that resembled very thin, blue rope. “This is Faerie twine, a thanks for letting me follow you around all day. It’s a rare ingredient to a potion, and one I think you’ll be needing very soon.” She dropped it into Dan’s palm and he immediately curled his fingers into a fist around it.

“Thank you,” he murmured.

She kissed his cheek and waved to the others. “See you around!” And just like that, she was gone.

There was silence between the four of them, one that was only broken by Louise practically bouncing on her toes. “What’s up, Louise?” Phil asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

“Faerie twine!” She gasped out. She made large gestures with her hands, showing her excitement. “I know what it can be used for?”

“What?”

Her eyes turned mischievous and she smirked, looking Dan right in the eye. “A love potion.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading guys! Sorry this was such a late update, I have quite a few things going on atm. For the next few weeks, I may not be able to update on every Sunday but I will certainly try to. This next sunday, I’ll be going to Chicago and staying at my roommate’s house for a few days and then right after I’ll be heading to my dad’s house in Kentucky for a week. AND THEN I have to move back to college on the 20th xD As you can see, I’m a bit busy haha. But i will definitely try to update! Just a warning in case I don’t have time! Let me know what you guys think xoxo


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry it’s taken so long to upload this baby! I’ve had a few busy weeks lately. Since we’ve last talked I’ve been to Chicago and Kentucky and I’ve also moved back into my university dorms! I’m hoping to get back onto a schedule with this soon but I finished this before Sunday so I just decided to upload this because I was so excited to have finally written something! Hope you enjoyed and let me know what you think <3 Also, thanks to vivianadichiara for two beautiful pieces of art on their tumblr, I seriously love them so much! Here are the links if you'd like to see them c:  
> http://vivianadichiara.tumblr.com/post/148210675664/soooo-do-you-guys-know-who-this-is-well-its  
> http://vivianadichiara.tumblr.com/post/148849210614/and-here-is-amazing-phil-too-this-is-the-twin-of

“A love potion?” Dan asked flatly. He almost wanted to grab the nearest bottle of toxic acid and smash it on his head, that way he could wither away before having to face what was currently going on. “Why in the actual hell did Aqua think my life would be better with an ingrediant to a love potion?”

Louise and Phil stared at him, matching smirks on their faces. It was as if they knew something that he didn’t, something that they didn’t bother telling him but that they were totally in on together. Dan hated it, wanted to wipe those stupid smirks from their faces before they could come up with a ridiculous plan. “Maybe she knew that your love life is literally empty and has been for the past ten years,” Louise teased. Phil snickered at the comment and they high-fived each other. Dan tried not to let a pang of jealousy go through him at their closeness. Since when did they get to be better friends than he and Louise?

“My love life has not been empty.”

“Oh yeah?” Louise asked, raising her eyebrow. She pursed her lips, tapping a finger against her chin. “Name one person you’ve slept with in the past year.”

Dan mentally cursed her. She knew that he hadn’t slept with anybody since that one night stand with Vance Volasco, who he had embarrassingly ended up drunkenly puking on right after they’d had sex. The worst part was that had happened two years ago. He’d sworn off one night stands (and relationships) for a while after that, mainly because of lack of interest and also internal mortification.

(Even the thought of Vance now made him blanch, shivering at the mere mention of his name).

So he said, “Vance Volasco,” knowing that Louise wouldn’t take that as an answer. But hopefully she wouldn’t mention it to Phil, who was looking at him rather expectantly. Dan didn’t particularly understand why his sex life was such a wonder to Phil, but he decided to just let it go, awaiting for his best friend’s reply.

“Vance fucking Volasco!” Louise cackled, doubling over. And as if she couldn’t be anymore embarrassing, she even slapped her knee. Dan didn’t know what was so funny about the situation. When she caught her breath, she straightened up and met Dan’s glare, grinning widely. It was a wonder why Dan was still her friend when she was such a nuisance on the regular occasion. “Right, I suppose after that entire fiasco, I’d be embarrassed to have sex with someone again as well.“

"What happened?” Phil asked. His voice was tinged with amusement and Dan decided that he whole-heartedly wanted to kill them both. He was planning the revenge hex already.

“He puked-!”

“Okay,” Dan interrupted. “So tell me about this love potion. Obviously it’s used for making someone fall in love right? But other than that, I know absolutely nothing about it. Give me the deets.”

Louise silenced herself, nodding respectively. Even if Louise was oftentimes a joker, she ultimately cared about Dan’s well-being in the end and he loved her for that. Even if she got rather annoying so quickly. “Right, okay. Love potion.” She took the blue twine into her hands and furrowed her brow, rubbing it between her fingers. “A love potion made with Faerie twine is an extremely rare and special form of a potion. The twine basically syncs with the person and copies their genetic code, making it easy to manipulate that person’s emotions. When the potion is drunk, the receiver will then fall in love with the first person they lay eyes on, and the victim - the person that the receiver saw first - will also fall in love with them. It’s the only love potion that works for both parties, even if one person didn’t drink the potion.” She paused, humming. “This potion is very unique because it only lasts for three days. However, there is an exception to that rule. Let’s say, for example, Dan drank the potion. You then see Phil, the first person in your line of sight,” she turns to Phil for emphasis and the two men turn a bright red in response, “Both of you will become completely infatuated with each other. The potion is supposed to last for three days, but something happens and you both are ‘in love’ for much longer, up to about a week. If this happens, that means the universe has decided you are both compatible with each other and the love potion recognized that, making it hard to wear off.”

Dan and Phil stared at each other until she stopped talking. Dan’s mind was spinning and Phil seemed rather embarrassed to be included in the fantasy, his cheeks a rosy pink and his lips raised apologetically. Dan couldn’t wrap his head around the image that Louise planted in their minds, of them being so infatuated with each other that they would most likely be all over each other. He couldn’t imagine it, not when Phil was a human and he was a witch. But he couldn’t help but wonder what that would be like.

He shook his head viciously, trying to get those thoughts out of his mind. He had been so void of love and a relationship that his brain was trying to force feelings for people he didn’t feel romantically attracted to onto him. Dan didn’t think that was fair of his brain.

“So!” Louise said loudly, clapping her hands and therefore snapping Dan out of his confusion. “Can we try it? I volunteer Dan and Phil as tribute to this experiment!”

“No!” Dan protested, just as Phil said, “Sure.” This caused a staring match between them.

Phil wanted to be infatuated with him? Dan needed a chair to sit down on.

“I mean, why not?” Phil explained. He was nonchalant about it, a complete 180 from the embarrassed expression on his face from earlier. He smiled comfortingly at Dan, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s not like it would mean anything. It will wear off in three days anyways.”

“Absolutely not.” There was no way. While Dan was slowly becoming comfortable around humans, he wasn’t that comfortable around them. He certainly didn’t want to be in love with one. “I’m not comfortable with that situation at all.”

Luckily, they didn’t push them. Although he did agree to at least make the potion, that way they could have it ‘just in case’. Whatever that meant.

They waited around for Phil to get off the clock and for Zoella to get into work to head to the back room, a place specifically used for Louise’s spells. This was the area of the shop in which Louise read tarot cards to paying (human) customers and also did palm reading. On the occasion, she would even perform hexes or fortune spells for them as well.

They piled in quickly, watching in silence as Louise began to pull item after item off of the shelves, stockpiling them onto the floor in front of them. There was already a pentagon drawn on the floor in permanent marker, a spell decision that Dan probably wouldn’t have chosen if it was his idea. From where he and Phil were standing, he could make out a jar of gold shavings, three roses (including the stems), lavender scented wax, and coffee grounds. A strange mixture of ingredients, but Dan decided not to ask about it.

Finally, Louise plopped down on the floor, rubbing her hands together victoriously. The twine was sat next to her, apart from the rest of the ingredients and she grabbed a gold chalice to tie it around, making a perfect bow. “Let’s get this started!” She giggled, placing the chalice in the center of the pentagram. With a slender hand, she drew her wand from out of her pocket, pointing it at the light switch. “Dim the lights,” she ordered. On cue, the lights dimmed a few notches. She pointed the wand at two candles sitting on a shelf. “Light.” The wicks started to flame.

Her smile glittered in the half-darkness, making her look like the Cheshire cat. “Perfect,” she purred. Dan and Phil watched in awed silence as she broke apart a block of the lavender wax, dropping it into the chalice as if she’d practiced this spell many times. Dan was just amazed that she was able to remember the spell this well without even looking up how to do so. “Melt,” Louise uttered. Her wand glowed slightly and then the chalice caught on fire for approximately two seconds. When it went out, the room smelled like fresh lavender, making Dan relax appreciatively. Louise grabbed the jar of gold shavings, opened it, and sprinkled a few into the wax, followed by the coffee grounds. A golden coffee-smelling plume arose from the cup, making the three wrinkle their noses. It didn’t smell very good when mixed with lavender and Dan didn’t understand how anyone could just straight-up drink that concoction.

The roses were next. Louise slowly plucked each petal, dropping them into the cup. When the petals were all compiled into the wax mixture, she then broke each stem into threes and threw them in as well. “Dan,” Louise said, motioning for him to come forth. He stood next to her, watching as she quickly grabbed his hand. They didn’t talk as she took his palm and dragged the tip of her wand over the skin. He felt a mild pain and then his hand was dripping with blood. Phil gasped, but it wasn’t a big deal to Dan as he’d done it quite often for these purposes. He squeezed his hand over the chalice and watched as his blood dripped into the cup, sizzling when it made contact and turning the mixture into a bright purple colour.

Dan backed off as Louise started to say a few words in ancient tongue, untying the Faerie twine as she did so. When she finished, she dropped the twine into the chalice and they all watched as the pentagram lit with an unnatural light, signifying that the spell had been a success.

After it was over, the potion was light blue, the same colour of Aquamarine’s clothes.

“That was… Amazing,” Phil gasped, eyes wide. Louise and Dan turned to him in confusion and the lights grew bright again. “I’ve never seen a witch do a spell before!” He explained excitedly.

Louise laughed. “Well I’m sure you’ll see much more of it now,” she said. She took the glass from the center of the pentagram along with a vial from the shelf. With steady hands, she poured the potion into the vial and watched as it filled with the light blue liquid. It seemed as if it had mixtures of purple in it, a quite questionable consistency. When it was all emptied into the container, Louise turned to Dan, wriggling her eyebrows. “Why don’t you take it, Dan? I’m sure you need a love potion.”

Dan declined politely, pressing his lips together and holding his hands up defensively. “No thanks,” he muttered. “I’m not really interested in romance. Why don’t you keep it for now?”

Louise rolled her eyes, muttering something about how Dan needed to lighten up and live a little, but she kept it anyways, putting it on one of the shelves, never to be seen by Dan again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and lemme know what you think! You can find me on tumblr at phansdick <3


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy fuck. it has been WAY too long since i've attacked this fic. i'm seriously so sorry, guys. I've had a lot going on recently and this semester at uni was absolute hell. I'm hoping to get back to this fic soon as i absolutely love the idea so much and have most of it planned out. Thanks so much for sticking with me anyways! Love you all!

It’s been weeks since Dan had first met Phil and he was already starting to feel considerably more relaxed around him. He didn’t get as worked up whenever Phil’s skin brushed against his own and he didn’t even panic all that much either. Of course, he still had those moments of anxiety where he wondered how he was even talking to a human, but that quickly passed when Phil’s gentle blue eyes glinted back at him. 

Because that was why he was talking to a human. Phil was hands-down one of the nicest people Dan had ever met and he slowly found that he wanted to know more about him. But how could Dan bring up that fact without utterly embarrassing himself? Or making it seem like Dan wanted to go on a date? He didn’t want to go on a date. Not with Phil. Not with anybody. But mainly not with another human when it risked Dan losing his wonderful powers. 

“Dude,” Louise said flatly one night as she was closing up the shop. She gave Dan an unimpressed look as he balanced on the edge of the glass display cabinet. “You gotta ask him to hang out sometime. I know you’re still going through your weird anti-human thing, but you live in the same building for god’s sake. You already know you have a lot in common because you gushed about Muse and anime for two hours straight. But even so, every time you see him, you look like you’re going to shit your pants.” 

Dan glared at her. “I do n-!”

Louise stood up straight, pulling her wand out of her pocket and slapping it on the wooden wall with a loud thwak! “You do. And I think it’s time for an intervention.” Before Dan could ask what in the hell she meant by that, the tip of her wand was glowing brightly and Dan’s phone was flying out of his hands and into Louise’s own. 

“Hey!” Dan screeched, lunging towards her. She stopped him with a simple flick of her wand and he was suspended in air, stuck, watching as she easily unlocked his phone and visibly typed out a message. “Can you at least let me know what you’re saying?” Dan whined, pouting his lip out and feeling fear flash through him so strong that he wondered how he hadn’t been flung backwards with the force of it. 

Louise rolled her eyes. There was the distinctive noise of the sent message tone going off on Dan’s phone and he blanched. “I just asked him if he wanted to go to a human-friendly witch bar with you tonight.”

“A bar? Tonight?!”

“A bar,” Louise said slowly, as if Dan was stupid. He wasn’t stupid, just nervous. “Tonight.” Dan was about to curse at her, already planning which spell he was going to cast on her for revenge that night, when his phone let out a shrill whine. He got a text. Louise’s eyes immediately lit up and she pumped her fists in the air. Dan’s heart sank and his body lowered to the floor with it, finally in control of his limbs again. 

He snatched the phone out of Louise’s hands, heart pounding in his chest. 

Phil Lester  
That sounds great! I’ll be at yours around nine?

Dan looked at the clock. It was eight. He cursed under his breath. “Mother fucking bitch,” Dan hissed, scrabbling around for the rest of his supplies that he’d bought. He was considerably low on dragon’s breath and poison ivy so he’d run by the Witch’s Cauldron for some and ended up staying until close just chatting up with his best friend. But now it seemed as if his actions were being payed for and he didn’t know whether to be pissed or anxious. “I hate you so much, you know that?” Dan growled, stalking towards the door.

Louise’s laugh followed him out as the door swung shut behind me. “You’ll be thanking me later!” She called. Dan doubted it.

Don’t get him wrong, Phil was a nice guy. That much was obvious. But he was a human. Dan and humans didn’t get along. He didn’t mind them, of course. He just got so nervous and became a bumbling fool around them, not really knowing what to do or how he should act. Should he talk about the new bottle of fish eyes he had to get for one of his potions? Should he talk about how his cat kept throwing up after Dan accidentally burnt a shitton of sage? 

Dan wouldn’t know. He wouldn’t know because he’d never had to deal with this sort of thing before. 

He paused outside of his apartment for a bit too long, trying to calm himself down. He couldn’t be worked up when Phil got here because it would make him more of a bumbling fool in the first place. So he just breathed for a moment, closing his eyes and trying to pretend like Phil was just another witch. 

Except he wasn’t. And Dan was screwed. 

Chamomile pounced on him as soon as the door opened, making him cough as cat hair flung into his mouth. “Dan! I smell anxiety and teenage hormones!”

“What the fuck do you mean by teenage hormones?” Dan grumbled, detaching his cat from his face and setting her on his shoulder instead. He made his way to the bathroom, making sure that his hair was presentable and he didn’t look like a complete funeral. He was wearing all black, as per usual, but he decided not to change anyways. 

“You smell like angst and worries. What’s going on?”

Dan sighed and sorted his hair out, splashing cold water over his cheeks to try and calm himself down. “I’m going to a witch bar with Phil.”

Chamomile gaped at him. “But- that’s awesome! You can finally get to know him better!”

Dan didn’t think she understands. But then again, she is a cat so what could he expect really? “He’s just-”

“A human, I know. But who cares? I thought you were over that.”

“I just get nervous,” Dan mumbled. 

Chamomile sighed and laid down on his shoulders so she was literally a giant fluffy scarf around his neck. It was comforting, especially with the way her purrs felt like a little massage on his skin. “Just be yourself. There’s nothing to be worried about. You and Phil have been getting along great and he’s a really nice guy. I’m sure there’s nothing for you to worry about.”

Just then, there was a knock on the door and Dan visibly paled. “It’s Phil,” he said dumbly. 

“So open the door,” Chamomile replied gently. 

Dan did. Even though he knew who it was, he was still surprised to see Phil’s face staring straight back at him. His eyes were shining and his cheeks were tinted a nice peony colour. “Dan!” He exclaimed, and Dan had a moment where he could have sworn Phil was going to hug him. 

He didn’t, and Dan didn’t know why he was a bit disappointed by that. “Hey, Phil. You want to come in or should we just go to the bar now?”

Phil shrugged, grinning. “Up to you. I’m fine with leaving now if you’re ready though.”

Dan agreed. What else could he do now, anyways? He’d already had his daily dose of anxiety, and now it was just time to act on it. Without any further contemplation, Dan grabbed his jacket and followed Phil into the cool air of the night. He’d decided to go to a fairly close human-friendly bar called The Brew, which he’d only been to once. From what he remembered, it was a very nice place with decent alcohol. To humans, it’d probably be about ten thousand times better than just regular bars, but to Dan it wasn’t anything unusual. 

So when they walked in, Dan couldn’t help his initial first reaction at being surprised when Phil let out an amazed gasp. “What?” Dan asked, eyebrows raised with amusement.

Phil was gaping, his mouth dropped in awe. His eyes were shining, glittering in the dancing lights, and he looked even more pale in the darkness. “This is… this is bloody amazing!”

The remark made Dan try to look at it from a human’s perspective when he took another glance around. There was fog that crept over the floor without the usage of any fog machines. Lanterns floated in the air, flashing different colours, and there was the faint smell of lavender and vanilla in the air despite the sweaty and alcohol-ridden bodies. Artwork hung from the walls and the portraits moved, seemed to be dancing with the throng of people. As they walked further inside, they were each handed a crystal necklace that glowed in the dark. Phil’s crystal was blue and Dan’s was pink, just like his wand. 

Dan smiled a bit, finally understanding why Phil was in such shock about this. Compared to a normal human bar, this one was like a fantasy come to life. But to Dan? This was normal. It was fucking amazing. 

“Well are you going to keep standing there?” Dan teased, grabbing Phil’s wrist and tugging him over to where he saw the bartender balancing six shot glasses on each arm, a bottle of vodka magically pouring itself into them. “Or are we going to have some fun?”

Needless to say, Dan didn’t have to ask Phil twice before he was ordering six shots of whiskey. The only problem that Dan’s ever found with a witch bar is that the alcohol was way too strong. Compared to a human bar, Dan got blackout drunk far quicker than he’d ever anticipated so he always tried not to go over three shots of whatever the hell he was drinking. He tried to tell Phil but before he could get the words out, Phil was on his fifth shot and was giggling over the stupidest things that he could think of. Dan couldn’t say much because he was giggly as well, just a little bit less so than his human friend.

“There’s a freaking goose on the dance floor!” Phil cackled.

Dan looked. There was a fucking goose on the dance floor. He snorted, accidentally inhaling some of his drink through his nose and coughing violently. “Why- why’s there a goose in here?” Dan snickered, wiping off his nose and putting his hands on his cheeks to try to cool himself down. It was getting hot in here. 

“You’re the witch, you tell me!” Phil shot back. He was laughing so hard that he leaned against Dan, the bare skin of their arms touching and sending a weird buzzing feeling through Dan’s entire body. He tried not to pay too much attention to it. Instead, he continued to stare at the goose, trying to figure out why there was a fucking goose in there.

Eventually they downed the rest of their beverages and got up to join the goose on the dance floor. They danced and laughed and spun around until Dan could have sworn he was going to be sick, and he had to wipe his eyes when the goose suddenly turned into a person. He almost had forgotten that witches were a thing at that point, but realised all too late that a witch had probably turned the human into a goose for some odd reason. 

He didn’t care. He was too drunk to think about it that hard. And Phil was too, by the looks of it.

“This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time,” Phil yelled over the booming music. He was doing a weird dance move that made him look like a white dad at a barbeque, but Dan wasn’t judging him because he probably looked the same.

Dan grinned back at him, watching as the floating lanterns made Phil’s eyes shine in the darkness. “Me too, I haven’t felt this relaxed in ages.” He threw his head back and laughed, almost stumbling over, but Phil was right there to catch him, to steady him and make sure he didn’t fall. Instead, Dan was collapsing into Phil, his head on his shoulder and a stupid grin on his face that wouldn’t go away. His voice was breathy when he said, “I guess humans aren’t so bad, are they?”

Phil giggled and his lips were right by Dan’s ear so he could hear him. “That’s what everyone’s been trying to tell you, you idiot.”

When they stumbled to Dan’s flat at one o’clock in the morning, Dan didn’t have to think twice before inviting Phil to stay. Even though they were both pretty trashed, it was entirely too innocent as Dan fell onto his bed, watching through half lidded eyes as Phil stumbled onto the other side of the bed. He didn’t have the heart to tell Phil to get off of his bed, not when he seemed so tired that he looked as if he was going to pass out right then and there. 

So Dan just let him stay. He’d had a great time that night anyways and he figured it was only normal for friends to sleep in the same bed together. Because that’s what friends did, and Phil was Dan’s friend.

Friends. The word lifted a huge weight off of Dan’s shoulders and suddenly he wondered why he was so afraid of humans in the first place. 

And if Chamomile was so quiet as Dan drifted to bed, he didn’t even notice. He was too tired, too drunk, to care at all.


End file.
